Abstract
TWO leaflets have recently been issued under the auspices of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research by the Forest Products Research Laboratory, Princes Risborough: No. 34 on "The Identification of Timbers", and No. 37 on "Selecting Ash by Inspection" (H.M. Stationery Office, London, 1944). Leaflet No. 34 is intended to be a rough-and-ready guide to the identification of timbers. Its aim is the temporary one of taking the place of more elaborate text-books and official publications at present practically unobtainable. As is well known, owing to the demands of the War, a number of new or at least unfamiliar timbers are being used in Great Britain, and it is at times difficult for those wishing to do so to identify timbers the use of which is permitted by official specifications. General appearance, colour, texture, weight and smell, etc., are useful aids to the cognoscenti, but more reliable tests are based on the characteristic structural features remaining unaltered under conditions which may entirely change the external appearance of the timber. The object of the leaflet is to describe and illustrate the principal structural features of wood and to explain how they can be used in identifying timbers in the factory or office with the minimum of apparatus and little or no previous experience.
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Identification of Timbers. Nature 155, 184 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155184a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/155184a0